FFXIV Dawntrail Benchmark updated with additional graphical improvements following player feedback

With Final Fantasy XIV’s Dawntrail now only a month away, one of the biggest remaining concerns has been the state of the graphics update, as the first Dawntrail Benchmark fell short and left players worried. However, director Yoshi-P brought an update on what to expect from the new Benchmark, and it sounds like good news all around.

According to an announcement released today The Lodestone, Yoshi-P goes into full detail about all the changes that have been made, as well as an update to the release date for the Benchmark itself. Although initially scheduled for release today, due to various unavoidable circumstances, the updated Benchmark will now be released on Monday, June 3rd.

Once it’s out, players can expect to see these major changes to Benchmark’s character creator:

• Ethereal Background gets a second lighting option – This particular background has always been difficult for players to use due to the excess of blue light against skin tones, hair colors, etc. However, the Benchmark will allow players to switch to a set. ‘Illumination 2’ option to see their characters in normal lighting.
• “Daytime” lighting option added to all backgrounds – A newly added clock icon next to the background selector will allow players to adjust the type of lighting they want to see based on the time of day.
• Vignette effect removed from Character Creator – The visible “haze” vignette over the entire character creation screen has been removed to improve the visual accuracy of characters, albeit at the slight expense of menu clarity.
• Better Learners Highlights and Lip Gloss – One of the biggest points of contention in player feedback, student characters will now have properly improved and updated lighting processes to give them full dimension. The initial Benchmark had a “weakened” version of this feature.
• Improvements to Face Impressions – Another focus of criticism in the initial Benchmark was the overall appearance of facial features such as skin texture, eye wrinkles and smile lines. These features were later fully redrawn and mapped to reflect a more accurate appearance on characters’ faces.
• Correction of Low-Resolution Sections of Hair – Lack of time before the initial Benchmark caused spots of hair on characters remaining in low resolution. However, this has now been corrected for each hairstyle.
• Self-shadowing Optimizations – Additional lighting adjustments have been made regarding how shadows are cast across a character’s face, especially with hair and other prominent facial features.
• Additional Environment Lighting Adjustments – Improvements to scenes and positions where characters are backlit or shadowed, providing a more three-dimensional look to prevent them from looking “flat” against dark foregrounds and backgrounds.

As noted in the announcement, all these improvements and updates should be reflected not only in the new Benchmark but Dawntrail itself. This is especially important because we’ll have two colorful new jobs to try out in the expansion.

Yoshi-P assured that his team will continue to further refine and polish every aspect from the game’s first major graphics update until the last day before Dawntrail’s release.

Changes to Fantasias in FFXIV Dawntrail and beyond

In tandem with the game’s graphics overhaul, Yoshi-P also confirmed that all players will get to claim a free Fantasia via an unnamed 7.0 quest, allowing them to adjust their character’s appearance if they’re not happy with it after the graphics updates.

In addition, going forward with Dawntrail, Fantasias will have a newly added feature where players will have up to 60 minutes of in-game time to “try on” their character’s new look before it becomes permanent. Considering that Fantasias normally cost USD 9.99/each (plus new taxes), this will be a very liberating and welcome update for those looking to make dramatic changes to their character.

Be sure to check out all of our Final Fantasy XIV guides and news at Pro Game Guides, like the Mountain Dew Collab event rewards – How to get Mountain Zu’s mount.